*breathes again and adjusts zoo-dork glasses* I would like to add that this is a 9-banded armadillo, which is commonly found in the southern United States from Texas to Florida (and they’ve recently expanded into parts of Louisiana) and down into Mexico and the upper portion of South America. They are commonly found along roadsides after being hit by cars. :( And they are sometimes hunted for food. :(:(:(

Also, the 9-banded is the only armadillo which can inflate its intestines and SWIM!

I would like to see this snorffle-monster with his/her siblings. 9-bandeds always give birth to 4 behbehs at a time, who are genetically identical. After fertilization, the embryo cleaves in two and then in two again, creating identical quadruplets! Yay Nature!!

I do not think that Armadillo is cute. In fact, I find it rather disgusting. I am horribly afraid that Cute Overload will now be full of nothing but armadillos, day after day. I have never wanted to have an armadillo of my own, and I think that everyone who does want an armadillo should seek psychiatric help. I come to Cute Overload to escape from the armadillos I see every day on my way to work. If this continues, I will not only stop visiting your blog, I will start eating armadillos. I will eat them until there are none left to pose for gross pictures.

Look at his little pink snoot! LOOK AT IT.
I can just picture it gently twitching as it smells an offered handful of armadillo chow (which probably involves bugs but I like to imagine as being something more like jellybeans mixed with popcorn).

Many times I have wanted to comment on CO… but I am incredibly lazy. However, this Armadillo has spurred me on. Soooo cute! The eye capsules! The ears! I love Armadillos, but not as much as my Okie Granny! I am sending her this pic right now. Fantastic!

Love the floppy ears, BEF, and its rounded shape. I would be pleasantly surprised to see one paddling in my yard, but that’s not likely to happen. Is this someone’s pet or did someone just happen to snap a picture when he/she came across the armadillo on a hike or something?

We are lucky enough in North Florida to have armadillos hanging around the yard. They chill out in the backyard with the cats. The live in harmony, I guess because of the armor. ;-O I will have to camp out and get a picture to send in…

Maybe it’s just a Texan thing, but I absolutely adore ‘dillos! They are precious, just love the little tanks. They aren’t squishy, they feel rough and not soft at all. But they are still precious. (But don’t touch any, unless it’s a zoo-type situation where you are allowed to – they do carry leprosy).

Tee hee, this reminds me of a line from “Spinal Tap”. The band members are talking about why they are not popular with girls and one of them says something like “We have, like, armadillos down our trousers!”

wait a goshdarned minute. armadillos have furry bellehs? um, i am tewtally ded. a ded from which i shall never recover. the bebeh dillo is cute enough, but there’s a furry belleh under there too? that’d be worth leprosy.

normally, i’m more of a cat person, but i just love armadilloes!!! this is some serious cute. i have fam who live in TX where these critters are quite populous, i got to pet one- very smooth and soft skin, and the little guy was so calm n sweet. thx for the post, this just totally made my day today.

Well, I’m glad I didn’t know about the possibility of leprosy the last time I was in Mexico.

We were on our way from Merida to Chichen Itza and we stopped to have a break from sitting in a van for 4 hours. While we were stopped, a woman came over with a ‘dillo and we petted it and wanted a picture of it. She said it would be 5 pesos, which we thought was funny but paid up, because it was around $1 and we wanted a picture. So we took pictures of each other holding the poor animal, curled up in a ball, then gave it back to the owner and proceeded back to our van. She followed us and then tried to hand the ‘dillo to us once we got in the van. Much to our amusement, it seemed we had inadvertently purchased said armadillo. Unfortunately we couldn’t take it with us, although my brother came up with some very creative ways to bring it back on the plane.

It’s been 10 years and he still gets pouty when we mention the armadillo we bought.

To GOLDEN: No, Artie doesn’t live with me. She’s one of the animals I work with at the SF Zoo. Yes, her butt-chub is ticklish – every time I hold her I give it a little tickle and she makes a funny noise and gives a squirm. Yes, butt chub, seriously.

To BUTTARUMCAKE, I had pictures of her on my old phone but it diededed and I can’t get my pics off. Next time I’m there I will try to take a pic for you and I WILL SUBMIT EET!!!

Naomi – You may not have armadillos, but you’ve got not only marsupials (which are all strange) but also monotremes (which are even stranger – the platypus and the echidna have to be two of the weirdest creatures on earth).

While conversing with a friend who was recently-moved to Texas, she told me about these critters.
1) They are anti-garden plantings and will dig to China for grubs, routing any plants and messing up the roots so that the plants can’t be replanted
2) When they can’t roll up in a ball they jump up, so that when a car drives over them to not hit them, they jump up into it and that is the cause of the road fatalities. People try to not hit them but their Dilloinstincts go against the whole ‘trying to save the Dillo’strategy. So, what have we learned? Dillos are dilligent and they are, um, destined for unfortunate fates in car vs dillo accidents. I would love to see more pictures, and if there is butt fat, should be be funding a Dillo exercise
track, a Dillo tread mill perhaps? Dillobesity can’t be good except for CO.
Oh, just imagine the waddling- ohhhhh-the waddling,ooooohhhhh. I am firmly in the pro-Dillo camp.

I love armadillos, they are weird and cute, but they sure do dig up a yard. I lived in a subdivision in Alabama and for months something was digging up my yard each night, it looked like a bad golfer was whacking up divots. It was really a mess and we had no idea what it was. One night my cat was crying at the window and I went to look and saw an armadillo walking along the fence. I was dumbfounded – it’s not common in that area for them to wander onto lawns.

Since it was really destroying my yard, I got a live trap, and the dillo went in, but was so strong he (she?) broke out. I tried repellants, including spreading moth balls around every night, but it didn’t deter my new friend. I finally hired a trapping company and they got him and released him in the next county.

It was awesome having a resident armaditllo, but as much as I loved him (her) I’m pretty glad I no longer have one digging up my flower beds and lawn!

I want he.
It looks like some sort of pointy eared puppy that sprouted a strange little outfit.
We saw armadillos once on Cumberland island. At night. They would go snorffling off into the underbrush. Very shy.
Mostly we saw their strange little tails.

Since the comments to the Commentrobabyversy Problem of 2008 has been officially shut down, I just wanted to remark a few things.

- I’m working on marketing the Sarcasm Hat.

- I actually, in fact, do hate armadillos. I’ve never seen one outside of a zoo, but I really do think they’re very ugly. BUT, they are fascinating. But you won’t see me screaming “no armadillos!” cause I can skip this picture, go “aww” at Flocke and also watch the video of the persian cat smacking itself in the face (I’ve watched it about 200 times now, and have made the SO watch it. He doesn’t even like animal videos and he thinks it’s funny).

- I had my ‘pa-sickie/bicycle’ hybrid Queen song in my head and I’m glad someone (birdy) actually got it stuck in theirs too! SHARE THE LOVE!

- Who took that photo? In what context? It’s awfully close…or really good zoom.

I’m not a big fan of armadillos because not only are they stupid, but they also carry leprosy. While animal-to-human spread of the disease is not likely, it’s still unnerving. This pic, is deceptively cute, though.

I’m not a big fan of armadillos because not only are they stupid, but they also carry leprosy. While animal-to-human spread of the disease is not likely, it’s still unnerving. This pic, is deceptively cute, though.

when my dad was a little boy he was intensely terrified of this one picture of an armadillo in his encyclopedia. being from queens he’d never seen a live one, but the picture scared him to pieces and of course his older sisters chased him around with it all the time.

it goes without saying that i emailed him this picture straightaway. figured i’d find out if he was still scared of them or not.

Longtime lurker but this discussion of “Leprosy” has forced me to post in order to set the record straight. I’ve have worked with the records of the Carville Leprosarium in Carville, LA. — the only Leprosy Hospital in the continental United States.. since closed down.

First of all, those who suffer from the disease prefer it to be called “Hansen’s Disease” named after the discoverer of the bacilli that causes the aliment — and it is caused by a bacilli, not a virus. The term “Leprosy” carries all kinds of negative connotations.

2) The disease is only “feebly” communicable and in fact, recent studies of genetics have proven that 95% of the population carries a natural immunity to the disease.

3) Scientists are still not entirely sure HOW the disease is spread — so there is no evidence to support the idea someone can “catch” it from an armadillo.

4) In the past, people who suffered from Hansens’s Disease were forcibly quaratined and treated very much as second class citizens. I’ve read the stories of people who were shut away in hospitals for their entire lives. Even after drugs were discovered to treat the disease and patients were allowed to come and go from the hospital they had to fight for the right to travel on public transportation and visit public venues.

So please, for the sake of those who have suffered from the disease in the past and those who still occationally contract it today, treat it with some dignity and avoid stereotypes.

More animals, fewer homo sapiens. Animals need more respect and snorgling. Humans get plenty. Let this be a refuge from the incessant “Hey look at my kid, he’s so darling, he looks like ME, ergo I am so cute, look at me toooooo!” Be a stage mother somewhere else.

That said, ‘dillos rock. I have yet to see a live one while visiting in Texas, but I am always hopeful. I have to settle for ‘possums, which is another delightfully weird mammal.

Wow. Just wow. I could look at this pic for hours. (Ok, maybe not “hours”, but it’s so easy on the eyes!) This is such a great post… much better than the kid or the booby one. Although Flocke is an exceptional cutie.

Hey Arvay, I have one of those armadillo purses too. Not as qte as this snorgleable liddle darlin, but qte nonetheless. I only carry it on extra-spayshul occasions and always get lots of “OMG, where can I get one of those?” comments, which irritates my father-in-law no end, ’cause he thinks it’s really weird and gives me grief about it. Right now I’m blingin’ mine up by sewing on Delica beads and Swarovski crystals for my next spayshul occasion (Knopfler concert).

Armadillos never used to carry leprosy, they got that from human experimentation. They have the right metabolism to breed the disease very quickly and thus were used for laboratory experimentation with the disease.

Things went along fine until one day… you guessed it… some infected armadillos escaped from the laboratory and scurried off into the wild infecting the rest of the wild armadillos with leprosy.

So now, these critters carry leprosy. Sure it’s rare, and there are no documented cases of armadillo to human transmission. This is not very comforting, because they now represent a reservoir… and, you can also say that there are no documented cases of any animal transmitting Ebola to a human – but we know that there is an animal reservoir for that disease too.

Anyway, it’s not the armadillos fault, but just the same, I prefer to see them at a distance or thoroughly cooked.